See You Tomorrow Fam!

Hna Showalter coming to you live with one sad/happy email.

It was the best week ever (it always is as a missionary) but especially so because Viviana got baptized!! She was so so happy to follow her Savior and the spirit was so strong at her baptism. When she got the gift of the holy ghost she came back down and was like "I feel warm from my head to my toes. I cant describe it!" We had a lesson last night with her and the elders and her brother (who came and wants to get baptized now!) and she is going to work towards the temple. We also got to see former invs of mine and we now have a standing invitation to visit Chihuahua Mexico. They said they would be baptized too but just need a little more time. I love Eden and Jesus. Basically it was the perfect way to close my time as a missionary.

This week was filled with a lot of miracles. We were able to find 3 new people to teach and see a lot of progress with those we were teaching. It was really cool to see the Lord bless us for our service.

We got to go to the temple with our mission president and his wife and all the other (18!) departing missionaries. I've never been is such a full session but it was really cool to have that time to just reflect on the service that I have given. We also had departing interviews with our mission president and man I needed them. Sometimes I just feel like there was always more I could of done, more I could of given or said. I told President Wheeler this and he just looked at me and said " Sister Showalter, I cannot wait to stand before the Lord and tell Him about what an incredible mission you have served. You have been a rock for me here." I definitely cried a little bit at that.

But if I have learned anything on my mission it is that we can never do enough. We aren't perfect (like duh sis Showalter only took you 21 years to figure that out) But that is why we have a Savior. His grace is sufficient. His grace makes us strong and raises us above our weaknesses.

The greatest thing I have come to know on my mission is my Savior. He has been my rock. I have loved being a missionary because everyday I got to testify of Him. He is the light and life of this world that is often times filled with darkness. I thought coming on a mission would repay some of that debt but if anything my debt is even greater.

This is my second last day as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is my second last day wearing His name on my tag. But I will always carry His name over my heart. I am not who I was when I got on the first plane to Mexico City. If I had known then what I know now I would have ran to that plane as fast as I could. I am not who I was because my Savior intended for me to be even more.

This is the last invitation and promise I will leave with you all.

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." Moroni 10:32

I know my Savior lives.

To the Moon and Back

Hermana Showalter

lots of pics of my week

Dear Sister Showalter

Dear Sister Showalter,

You have been called to serve in the Arizona Gilbert Mission speaking the Spanish language. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You will report to the Mexico MTC. You will be put in the bombest trio to ever hit Mexico City. Sister Hanson and Sister Coulam will help you figure out a little bit more what exactly it means to be a missionary. You will miss your family and think about how long 18 months really is. You will love your MTC experience though and eat your weight in pringles and ice cream. You will be able to meet the future prophet and always remember what he says - "The unlikely are called to do the impossible".

You will board a plane and be terrified out of your mind. You will walk off the plane with Sister Hanson and be welcomed to the greatest mission in the world. You will be so overwhelmed that you wont really sleep that night (especially since its on the most uncomfortable cot and the family's son was stabbed to death by his crazy wife and that is terrifying).

You will go on to meet your trainer, Sister Cedeno, from Venezuela. You will love her so much and she will teach you everything you need to know about being a missionary. She will make you knock your first door, speak some of your mangled Spanish and dance with you in the car to the only disc you will listen to for your first 7 weeks. You will find your first person to teach, Gloria, and will be with her every step of the way. She will patiently teach you how to speak the language. She will be your first convert. You will also get to know amazing people like the Hernandez family, Juan Lopez and Yulia. You will grow in your love for these people.

Then sadly, you will send Sister Cedeno home after your first 7 weeks together. It will be the most stressful time of your mission because President Wheeler will call you to train a new missionary and open a new area. You will have no clue what you are doing but will remember what Sister Cedeno taught you - "work, work, work". You and your daughter, Sister Shaffer will go out into the world of Gilbert Arizona and learn a lot of things together. You will learn the importance of 20-40-60, talking with everyone you see and eating as much McDonalds ice cream as possible to combat the AZ summer. You will laugh together often once you realize that its okay to be stressed and to trust in the Savior and have some of the weirdest interactions with people ever (Ana and Reuben??)

After 3 months together and after saying goodbye to your favorite zone, Sister Shaffer will get transferred and you will be put with Sister Garner. She will teach you so much about the Spanish Language and you will bond over your love of literature. She will hoplessly try and teach you how to sing. You will still not be able to sing. You will meet Elder Anderson of the 12 and be able to shake his hand. Gloria will get baptized during this time and so will Diana. You will hit your 8 months in this area and learn the importance of binding the Lord to His promises. You will teach Jimmy and come to love Hermana Teresa de Los Reyes so much. You will still continue to stink at scatterball. Rigo will not get baptized but you will have the faith that someday he will.

3 months later you will get transferred for the first time and asked to second half train Sister Neahusan. You will still be in the Queen Creek Ward and in the Bella Vista Zone. Two places you will come to love so much. You and Sister Neahusan will get lost in the car often and eat many many sweet potatoes together. You will see so many miracles as you begin to teach everyone that is related to Jose Villegas. You will talk to everyone and start teaching a household of men, namely Juan and Ramiro. You will also work with the Lopez-Cruz family often and they will get so close to baptism so many times and get to work with a lot of people from your first transfer. You get to go to the Mesa Lights and talk to everyone you see and it is awesome. You will be so busy that when you "get sick" you will refuse to stay home. You will grow so much this transfer and even bike to the boonies every once and a while.

After a transfer together you will be shocked to find out that Sister Neahusan is getting transferred. You both will be really sad because no one else loves WINCO as much together as you two. You will be called to be an STL and have no clue what you are doing. You will be companions with Hermana Fuimaono and love her to death. You will walk the fruit tree area and eat so many oranges that you definitely have your Vitamin C fill. You will see miracles this transfer as Rossy and Kimmy (of the Lopez-Cruz family) get baptized. You will start teaching a man named Daniel, who has gone through so much. You will grow in your love for these people. A member will bring a family to the Christmas party and you will remember having taught them in the past. They weren't ready then but they will be ready at this time in your mission. You will begin to teach them and see their lives be blessed as a family.

Then transfers will happen again and Sister Fuimaono will leave you. You will be sad and then find out that Sister Shaffer will be your companion again and you will be together for another 3 months. The area continues to explode and the two of you will drive each other crazy as you run around and try to handle everything. Daniel will get baptized and then so will Lorena and Marisol. The week before their baptisms will be some of the most stressful times you can remember and Satan will do his best to stop the work. You will not let him. You will start teaching the sweetest lady ever named Carmen and see her everyday. Within a month she will be baptized. You grow to love this area and the people even more. You don't think you will ever leave as you hit 14 months in the Queen Creek Ward and Bella Vista Zone. You will love your car and name her Josie. You will have the funnest house ever and love all the people you serve with. You will kind of be able to speak Spanish.

Then something shocking will happen.

You will be transferred up North. You will be put with Sister Neahusan again and just be amazed at her Spanish. It will be so different from the South and you wont really know how to handle apartments. You will miss Josie and the fruit trees and the dirt roads and the Queen Creek ward. But don't worry because you will come to love the Gilbert 11th ward and this area just as much. You will teach Angel, Javier and start teaching someone named Viviana. You will pass off so many referrals and wonder why you didn't know how to do that at the beginning of your mission. Food will become your enemy but you will press forward with faith. You will love Johnny your ward mission leader so much. Ana Machucha will be baptized and Angel will not commit but you have the faith that soon!! and you will start teaching a young awesome girl named Dalia. You will learn the importance of working with members and will want to hit yourself in the face for not figuring that out sooner.

2 transfers will go by and then Sister Neahusan will leave you and Sister Shaffer will come back to you for your last transfer. Dalia will get baptized and you will be working with Jesus and her family who are the awesomest. Viviana will accept to be baptized August 11th, your last weekend in the mission. You and Sister Shaffer will work so hard that this last transfer will fly by and you don't know where it will have gone.

You will look back and wonder how 18 months could go by so fast.The thought of taking off the tag and leaving it behind will terrify you out of your mind. You will want to cry but can't because you have too much love in your heart for these people. Gilbert Arizona will always be your favorite place in the world and your love for the Savior will grow to incredible proportions. You will come to have an unshakeable testimony in your Savior and in the prophet Joseph Smith. You will come to love the scriptures, especially the New Testament and Book of Mormon so much. You will come to be a little bit more like your Savior. You will truly come to see the Sunny Side of Life.

Needless to say Sister Showalter you are about to have the best experience of your life.

Best of Luck,
Hermana Showalter

PS  Quick run down of the week

MLC- so good, everyone cried because half of us are leaving
zone activity - we went to a laser tag place, i ran into the wall
exchanges - was with hna fuimaono, we saw so many miracles and viviana told us she would be baptized this Saturday!, found a new investigator who is so solid and we had the most powerful lesson with her
dinner at johnnys- almost all the Spanish missionaries came and it was so fun!!

good week i am sad see you all soon #peaceout

to the moon and back,
Hermana Showalter

last lap...

As always we have been so blessed this week and seen so many miracles. We also have never sweated so much before so that's fun...

BUT AS THE HEAT GOES UP it not only melts us and our Book of Mormons BUT PEOPLES HEARTS.

TO RECAP THIS WEEK:

TEMPLE - We got to go to the temple today with our zone! So fun and awesome! I went armed with questions and different thoughts and definitely received some much needed direction! I love the temple and am so grateful we have one in this (the best) mission!

VIVIANA- SHE IS DOING SO AWESOME! We had a great lesson with her this week and she just opened up. She talked about how in the church she really feels the spirit and so much peace. She told us the other week she went to a different church right after and it just didn't feel the same. She has been praying about baptism the 11th and told us that she would prepare to be baptized that day although she is still looking for some answers! We have started going over the different commandments and she just accepts them without hesitation! We love Viviana so much!! Keep her in your prayers that she will be ready to be baptized the 11th of August!

EXCHANGES - I got to go on exchanges with Sister Stewart this last week! It is her first transfer and it was so fun to see her enthusiasm and drive for the work! We had a lot of fun and saw some cool miracles with finding some new people with interest! I love working with greenies!!

ANTI - Sister Shaffer and I have been trying this tactic of inviting ourselves in to peoples houses and we did it with this lady. Well she did in fact let us in and give us water but then went on to tell us that our prophets do "devilish acts" UM have you seen photos of President Nelson? The man is 93 and a saint! But anyways we kept our cool and just testified that we know that this is the true church and that our prophet has been called of God and its okay that we disagree we know through prayer we can know the truth of all things - then we bounced. She had crazy eyes but I love those moments we are given to share our testimonies and share them boldly and without apology. It is just so true.

DALIA^2 - they are doing so good! We are going to start family history work with them and get them to the temple hopefully this next week! They just love everything and soak it right up!

THE SPIRIT- Sis Shaffer is just such a great example to me! She is always trying to follow the spirit and we have seen miracles come from it! Every morning when we sit down to plan we stop in the middle of our planning and just look at all our people. The other day we had an impression to stop by this LA and caught her brother Nacho who is visiting from Colorado! He was awesome and he just started to cry(and sweat...it was superrrr hot) and they were able to teach him on exchanges - now we just have to get in contact with the Colorado missionaries! We also stopped by this referral from a while ago and when we knocked, they opened the door and within 10 secs we were sitting on their couch as the mom talked to us like we were old friends! Crazy! We have been blessed with so many new people to teach and I thank our Heavenly Father everyday because of it!

GLORIA - many many months ago I got to teach one of my favorite people - Gloria!! I was her first missionary and she was the first person I helped find to teach! We got to go and have dinner with her on Monday and it was so fun! Her daughter Ana now lives with her and she is 10 and full of energy! We were just cracking jokes and reminiscing the whole time and it was a blast. My favorite part of my mission is the incredible people I have been able to meet!

Many other cool things have happened this week but I don't remember much more!

I am just so grateful. So so incredibly grateful. When I first started to think about a mission I couldn't decided if I should go or not. Then a series of very fortunate events led to me submitting my papers. I still didn't know for sure if I wanted to go even when I was holding my call in my hands but the moment that I opened it, the spirit washed over me and I felt so peaceful.

This mission has been the hardest thing I have done. It is something that has stretched me in a lot of ways. But I have met so many people that have made every single second worth it. Gloria, Daniel, Rossy, Kimmy, the Torres Family, Carmen our little angel, Ana, Dalia and Viviana. They and countless others have made every hot day, hard day, exhausting day worth it. I have been so privileged to be here.

I know this is the only true church. It was restored by a prophet of God and he holds the keys necessary to guide and lead the church. The Book of Mormon is evidence of this restoration. I invite each and every one of you to read it, pray about it, listen to the missionaries and receive your own witness.

I love you all!

To the Moon and Back!

ps I also cleaned a boys high school locker room and I can honestly say it was one place I never thought I would be on my mission...

Hermana Showalter

"and the Floods came up"

I'M HOLDING A GOAT!!

It was my birthday week and as expected there was much craziness, many miracles and a strong desire to one day, in the far off future, take a nap.

Looking back on my years now of wisdom it's hard to put into words just what exactly happened this week.

To start off - DALIA GOT BAPTIZED!! WAHOO! There were some stressful moments before as we had to cover a lot the day before but it all worked out and she was so happy! She was at girls camp the beginning of the week and made a ton of friends with the other young woman there and on Sunday - after she had gotten the gift of the Holy Ghost - she got up and bore her testimony with the other girls! I WAS SO PROUD I WAS JUST SITTING THERE ON THE STAND GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT (I had to give a talk again lol). Also her older sister and her daughter came to church and they loved it! Frida (the sister) told us that she was coming back and would love to talk to us!!!! #MIRACLES She has the coolest purple hair so needless to say I am pumped to start teaching her

we also got to go to a baptism down south for a guy named Alex. Many months ago sis shaffer and I talked to Alex at his door and he wasnt that interested. A few months ago sis shaffer talked to him again and he decided to give it a shot. He is literally so awesome. But unfortunately that is not where Alexs baptism story ends... We got there about 40 mins before his baptism was supposed to start and waited for the other sisters to show up. When they get there the four of us walk in to find water LITERALLY GUSHING OUT FROM THE DOOR. The sisters had left the building for a little bit to get ready AND THE FONT OVERFLOWED LOL. Trust me when I say that you have never seen 3 people leap into action faster. and I say 3 because Sis Hanson was just frozen in shock. Just wait till you see the pics.#DEAD More or less it was all squared away by the time of the baptism but I will never forget the one time that Sister Neahusan and Sister Hanson tried to pull a Noah on us. Thank goodness for those rainbows, am I right?? (love you sisters)

I also had exchanges with Sister Hanson this week and it was super fun! Pretty funny we never got to be companions again after the MTC. I just love her though, she is a great listener and truly loves the people so much.

We had interviews this week as well and if that wasn't the saddest thing ever I don't know what is. It was our last one before our departing interview. We didn't talk about anything in specific but PW (President Wheeler) did say something that I loved. He was talking about Nephi and how his brothers treated him because he was a consecrated missionary. President looked at me and said " People are going to want you to be 'normal' or 'Mallory' but thats not who you are anymore. You've consecrated yourself just like Nephi did and Nephi was that awkward RM. Be that awkward RM. Don't adjust to what the world wants you to be" So everyone please fully expect me to be weird when I get home. I have no shame anymore.

Other than that we found some solid new people to teach and one is a 16 year old boy named Cesar who is pretty awesome. The spirit was so strong when we were teaching him and he reminds me so much of Ross (love you buddy!) I am excited to keep this area pumping with Sister Shaffer!

Other things happened this week but those are the main ones! I love being a missionary and cant believe how little time is left. Our ward has started to find out and they might be more excited than we are about it haha.

i love being a missionary! I love this gospel!

To the Moon and Back

Hermana Showalter

Sister Garner took us to Outback!!

The elders and us at dinner. eating in separate rooms cuz someone just dropped off dinner

Us and Alex!

Guess who is 21?

These are real life shoes that someone wore to their wedding and they are literally a foot tall!

Us and Dalia

MLC from like 2 weeks ago lol

Cleaning up the flood!

To Those Who Still Love Me (jk)

I don't even know who reads this at this point but props to you if you do.

To those who do read this IT WAS A PRETTY AWESOME WEEK!

Why you may ask? Well let me give you the run down.....

1)DALIA IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY (at least it is planned for that day and lots of people have committed to come but keep her in your prayers this is about to be a crazy week for us) It has been hit or miss seeing her this week as she was getting ready for girls camp (which she is at the next 3 days) so when she came to the new member fireside yesterday we basically tackled her into a back room and taught the shortest lesson on the law of chastity of my life (lololol) we still have a few things left to go over before her interview but we are praying that all goes well!

2)ANA P GOT BAPTIZED

There is this family in the ward we LOVE. We have FHE with them every week and Hermana Plagge is basically my hero (the woman is amazing) and her youngest daughter got baptized this Saturday! I got to give the talk on baptism and it went super! except for the fact I got confused and thought I was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost so had to come up with my talk on the fly... there were a few panicked moments but thankfully I'm a missionary and talk about baptism a lot so there were miracles folks.

3) ZONE CONFERENCE

Oh man this was an emotional trainwreck...MY LAST ZONE CONFERENCE! I was just sitting there in denial and surrounded by all these young missionary peeps and contemplating how life has got me to this point. I have no idea. I was about to cry when I got up to bear my testimony but the moment I did I felt such peace. I know this is the true church and that it was restored by a prophet of God to the earth today! I have 0 reasons to be sad because I can share this with people all the time! ITS A GOSPEL OF JOY AND SO EVEN THOUGH I'M SAD AND OLD I'M GOING TO BE HAPPY. that is all.

4) JESUS

I love her so much! We did a family home evening with her, her husband and her daughter and it was awesome! The spirit was so strong and we just got to talk about the plan of salvation and it really touched Israel (her husband). They committed to come to church and Israel was all like "but i just don't feel comfortable in a white shirt and suit and stuff" and we were like "Israel we don't care if you come in shorts we just care that you come" AND HE CAME IN A WHITE SHIRT. Jesus was so happy to have her family all there with her and was just beaming the whole time.

5)SISTER SHAFFER

I am so blessed with an awesome companion. We are about to hit our 7 month mark together (lol) and by the end of our time together will have spent approx. 5,400 hours together ( i was curious one day). Pretty epic. But honestly she is such a great missionary and pushes me everyday to be better and work harder. We drive each other nuts and love each other to death. I'm grateful everyday that God put us back back together!

I have less than a month left! AHHHHHHH! I am freaking out but Sis Shaffer and I are running so hard (I may actually die before I make it to the plane) and I love doing what I'm doing. Being a missionary is the best. I love when you feel that overwhelming love for the people you are teaching or when it just finally clicks for them and the light just shines from their faces or when God just puts you in someones path that needs it. Everyday I find something that makes me love it even more and everyday I learn new things that I want to work on and apply. There just isn't enough time!

TO THE MOON AND BACK!

Hermana Showalter

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Holding Goats is fun!

Pres and Sister Wheeler

Sister Garner came to visit!

Otra Otra Otra VEZ

In a crazy twist of weird small Spanish fate Sister Shaffer and I are comps again! I don't know how it happened exactly but we will be entering in our last transfer together for a grand total of 5 transfers (or roughly 7 and a half months) and we are ready to see miracles!

Sister Shaffer is an amazing missionary and I am so excited to work with her again. She really brings a new meaning to the word "bold" and is always such a good example to me. So buckle down folks because this last month is about to get crazy!!

To start off our investigator Dalia is solidly on date to be baptized the 21st of July! She is so cute and in one of our lessons last week we followed up on her Book of Mormon reading. Well she ripped that thing out and flipped it open and there was a sticky note on each page that she had read with questions about different things. She is literally so prepared. The cool part too is that her mom is a REALLY inactive member - she didn't even remember being baptized! But we found her records and she is coming back to stay! We have been teaching them both from the beginning and it is so cool to see how readily they embrace the gospel. We taught the Word of Wisdom and her mom (also named Dalia btw) was like well "I do this one thing but not ever again!". Her mom is also really excited to get involved and receive a calling in the church. I love our Dalias!

Viviana is doing good as well! She is also on date for the 21st but we might have to reevaluate since we still have to teach a lot! We saw her right before Sister Neahusan left and she was telling us all about how she will just go on Mormon.org or lds.org and watch the videos and talks. She was like "well I don't understand everything they are saying but I like it". Pretty cool stuff.

Also the most terrifying thing happened to us last week. So President Wheeler called me on Monday and I thought he was going to ask me to step down my last transfer which would have been kind of nice BUT NO. HE ASKED SISTER SHAFFER AND I TO TRAIN AT MLC. It is a meeting in front of all the leadership in the mission and I can't remember sisters ever training at it. I thought I was going to throw up in all honesty. Luckily we managed to pull off one of the best trainings I think we've ever given and revelation was received and we did not die #BLESSINGS4DAYZ

Also the 4th of July happened and the guy who lives in the house behind us saw us pull in and was like "THIS ONES FOR YOU SISTERS!" shot off this giant firework and then goes "THAT WAS TOTALLY ILLEGAL AHAHAHA"....so if anyone was wondering how my 4th of July was  that pretty much sums it up. Also we had to stay inside with our zone for a couple of hours and we just played some games and sports. Pretty fun although nothing will ever be as epic as the last fourth of July #RIPOGBVZ

We have just seen a lot of miracles as we have been working with our members. The members have become so much more involved in the work up here and it is awesome! We have been working a ton with the YW president and she is so amped to do missionary work and help with our investigators. She even invited us to girls camp which we tragically had to turn down... I have such a testimony of this work!

I love love love being a missionary! It is the best thing I have ever done with my life. I am so blessed to have been called to this mission and to have met all these wonderful people! There are so many things I still have left to do before I get home and so many people I still have left to meet! I know that our Savior lives and that He went through the atonement so that we can find peace and happiness in this life and in the life to come. He is our Savior, Brother, Mediator and Friend. He is the Light and Hope of this world. We can all have a personal relationship with Him!

To the Moon and Back!

Hermana Showalter